Akali Dal to test political waters with first UP rally

LUCKNOW : The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), a National Democratic Alliance partner at the Centre, will hold its first political rally in Uttar Pradesh in Saharanpur on September 25, a party leader said.

The rally will showcase SAD’s political ambition in UP, where it is hoping to ally with the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. However, the Shiromani Akali Dal is also preparing to go it alone if the BJP remains unimpressed by its political utility in UP.

Shiromani Akali Dal chief and former Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, along with other leaders, including some influential heads of Gurudwara Prabhandak Committees from Delhi and parts of western UP, are scheduled to attend the rally.

Saharanpur shares its borders with Delhi, Uttarakhand and Haryana, the three states where the SAD has a political presence and from where it’s hoping for an impressive turnout.

The presence of ‘Punjabis’ and Sikhs, mainly engaged in business or agriculture, in western UP too has fuelled SAD’s ambitions to test political waters in the state.

Shiromani Akali Dal’s UP chief Gurpreet Singh Bagga said the party hoped to make an impression in about 40 assembly seats and it was in a position to influence the outcome in over 100 seats.

“The kind of response we have been getting already from places like Meerut is extremely encouraging. There are many pockets in UP like Rampur, Bijnor, Meerut, Badaun, Lakhimpur Kheri, Shahjahanpur, Pilibhit, Rae Bareli and parts of central UP like Lucknow and Kanpur, among many others, where we feel our candidates are going to do well. The decision has been in the offing for a while,” Bagga said on the phone from Meerut.

The SAD had been eyeing UP since the 2017 UP polls but had not firmed up its plans, the party leader said.

In 2015, about two years ahead of the 2017 UP polls, the then ruling Samajwadi Party had sprung a surprise by getting SAD leader Balwant Singh Ramoowalia to join as minister in the Akhilesh Yadav government after resigning from the Akali Dal.

Ramoowalia, a core committee member of the SAD, was inducted in the UP government as the SP was hoping to connect with the Sikhs and the Punjabi community in the state. Ramoowalia’s entry had failed to yield much benefits to the SP.

Akali Dal MPs Prem Singh Chandumajra and Balwinder Singh Bhunder, who had then expressed shock at Ramoowalia’s decision to quit the party and join the UP government, will also attend the September 25 rally.

It was expected that the SAD leaders would raise the issue of alleged neglect of Punjabis in government jobs in UP, an insider said.

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The kind of response we have been getting already from places like Meerut is encouraging. The decision has been in the offing for a while

GURPREET SINGH BAGGA, Shiromani Akali Dal’s UP chief